Dunoon blaze leaves 30 people destitute

Ten shacks and a spaza shop were razed to the ground

Photo of fire debris

The Kwa-7 spaza shop in Dunoon was destroyed in a fire on Monday. Photo: Peter Luhanga

By Peter Luhanga

27 February 2018

About 30 people were left destitute after a fire broke out in an informal settlement close to the N7 in Dunoon on Monday.

City of Cape Town spokesperson for the Fire and Rescue Service, Theo Layne, said, “We responded to a distress call at 12:21pm. Ten structures were destroyed. About 25 to 30 people were left homeless. It took about an hour to extinguish the fire.”

The cause of the fire is unknown, but residents suspect illegal electricity connections.

With the shacks, a spaza shop known as Kwa-7 also burnt to the ground. When GroundUp visited the scene, the owner’s brother, Sibulelo Zambondla, was trying to scrape clean charred pork he had salvaged from the blaze. He said R4,500 worth of meat had gone up in the smoke as well as cash and his identity document. Like other victims of the fire he was left with just the clothes on his back.